QUA – Quartiere Bene Comune (neighbourhood, common good) is an experience developed by the Municipality of Reggio Emilia (Italy). The project was implemented in response to the need to redefine the relationship between the centre of public decisions, the municipality and the territories (neighbourhoods, hamlets and villas), because of the suppression of the ‘Circoscrizioni’ (a form of administrative decentralisation existing in Italy since the 1970s).
The Circoscrizioni had played an important role from the point of view of participation and consultation of citizens since, thanks to the action of the elected bodies, relations between the central administration and the territories had remained constant. QUA represented for the municipality its own modality of reinterpretation both of the model of decentralisation of services and of the forms of representative and deliberative democracy, with the aim of building a co-city model.
This model is based on the paradigm of co-responsibility of the government of urban commons, which is understood as services to the person and territorial infrastructures. On this, the territorial communities and the administration act responsibly and jointly in public policy decisions through the experimentation of innovative models of services and projects community.